Could feel the greed light up at the table.
A flashfire.
I had to swallow down the shock of protectiveness that nearly busted straight out of my body when the slimy, blond motherfucker sat back in his chair and smirked up in her direction. One with the greasy curls and tweaker grin.
Already could see it playing out in his demeanor—the dickbag loved taking what wasn’t his.
That overwhelming urge to gather her up and run her to safety took on a new form and shape.
My heart a thunder. A screaming boom.
She leaned in so she could hear whatever he said.
His tongue licked out an inch from her ear.
Fucker salivating at the mouth.
Girl had no clue he’d scented her like fresh, raw meat.
I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until she stepped away from them and moved back to the bar. The air that had been locked in my aching lungs wheezed out.
But it didn’t do much to take off the edge, though, considering the cunt chased her with his eyes as she went.
Jud laughed, but it wasn’t amused. He took a gulp from his beer. “Watch yourself, brother.”
But no—I wasn’t close to watching myself. I was watching her. The way she talked with the bartender and then organized their drinks on her tray once he’d made them. Then she was back to floating through the raving mass.
Beauty and light in the midst of bleakness.
An angel in the darkness.
She started to pass out their order, beers for the two dark-haired guys on either side, before she leaned farther over the tabletop so she could slide the blond prick his drink. Sick bastard took it as an invitation to hook his finger in the neck of her tank and pull it down to get a better look at those tits, like he had the right to touch what wasn’t his.
A growl rumbled in my chest, my knee bouncing a million miles a minute as rage jumped into my bloodstream.
She jerked back. Horrified shock curled her gorgeous face in revulsion. She moved to put space between them, but the piece of shit just grabbed her by the wrist, twisting it to the side like he thought she was the one who was out of bounds.
And that was it.
All I could take.
I was on my feet in a flash.
I flew across the room in a blaze of fury.
Not that I wouldn’t have kicked this fucker to the curb if he touched any of my girls this way. But it being Eden? Had every intention of ripping out his throat.
Before he knew I was coming, I had him by the back of the neck and was hauling him up.
Eden screamed as the scumbag’s chair toppled over and smashed against the floor. Fucker writhed and kicked and struggled to get free.
Jud was right behind me. He grabbed the brown-haired prick who squealed like a bitch, Kult right there in a breath taking down the other.
Asshole thrashed and flailed in the chokehold I had him in as I dragged him back and started wrangling him through the crowd. The band kept playing as I hauled him through the crush and toward the door.
Hands fisted in the back of his shirt, I threw him out.
Literally.
Tossed the skeeze to the pavement in front of everyone waiting in line just to prove a point.
He rolled a couple of feet before he came to a stop facedown. Fury on his face when he looked up, he licked the tiny droplet of blood from the cut at the side of his lip that he’d gotten somewhere along the way.
My hands curled into fists. Animosity glowered like red destruction, a haze in the murky night. Wanted to bust it wide open.
I leaned over him, up real close, my voice the poison that I wanted to dump down his throat. “You think you can come into my bar and touch one of my girls?”
“Fuck you, man,” he spat as he hopped onto his feet just as his crew was getting tossed out beside him. He swiped a violent hand over the cut on his face.
That’s right, bitch, let’s get violent.
Hands squeezed into fists, I silently begged it. The depravity taking over. The demons clawing through my spirit, screaming to take possession.
The stain of who I was.
Ghost.
It sloshed through my veins in a bout of aggression.
Wanted to beat this fucker bloody for the fact he was the one who’d proven my point.
Eden didn’t belong here.
Not in the mix of the corruption that crawled its way to our door.
Not in the mix of the iniquity that was me.
Absolution was nothing but an invitation for sin.
The girl was blameless. I felt it to my bones. Felt it at odds with my spirit.
Goodness.
Grace.
“Don’t want to see any of your faces on my property. Not ever again.” I pointed between them while I forced myself to remain rooted and not go after what I was thirsting for.
Jud and Kult came to take up my sides, three of us a seething wall of menace.
Blond prick smirked like it didn’t affect him a bit, beady blue eyes pinned on me as he cracked a grin. “Not a very nice way to treat paying customers, now is it?”
The tone of his words were mocking, but it was the way he was looking at me that left me unsettled. Something awry. Something more than a junkie prick who’d wandered in from off the streets.
“You’re no longer a paying customer, now, are you?” This from Jud. His muscles ticked and jumped, dude wanting to tear into the asshole every bit as much as I did.
Rage barely bridled.
Blond fucker laughed. Another mocking sound.
A disturbance rustled through my consciousness.
He cocked his head to the side. “You sure you wanna take that stance?”
I stepped forward, getting in his face, words lowered with the threat. “Get cocky, motherfucker. I’ve slit throats for much less.”
He leaned back, still wearing that smirk, like it was me who was the brunt of a joke. He angled his head to his friends. “Let’s go.”
They started to walk but not before the guy lifted his chin with a sneer when he said, “See you around.”
They spun and strode out into the lot, and we watched until they piled into a pickup truck, engine grumbling to life and the headlights cutting through the haze. They whipped out of their spot and gunned it when they hit the street.
“Fuck,” I hissed, whirling around and storming back inside, ignoring the eyes that were watching us from out front. Didn’t draw much of a crowd from inside since it wasn’t exactly rare for someone to get kicked from the bar.
There were plenty of assholes who got too handsy or unruly, and it was a rare night when some beefed up douches didn’t end up in a fistfight.
But this…
“Somethin’ doesn’t sit right.” Jud was at my side, angling in so I could hear him over the roar of music.
“Nope.”
“You’re sure you’ve never seen them before?”
“Positive.”
“Prick was glaring at you like he knew you.”
“I know.”
Dread curled in my chest as I shouldered through the mob, heart slamming at my ribs as I scanned the throng.
No sight of the girl.
Jud kept pace, words shards. “You think someone is looking for us? Old debt?”
Foreboding stirred the adrenaline into rage. How many enemies had we made over the years? “Don’t know. Fuckin’ hope not, but I think we both know better than to stop watching our backs.”
Jud exhaled a heavy sigh. “Ghosts don’t ever stay dead, do they?”